


When Darkness Overpowers

by TheBookishDaydreamer



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Action, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Fantasy, Mythical Beings & Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28306524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBookishDaydreamer/pseuds/TheBookishDaydreamer
Summary: Searching for little Toby and his sister Sarah Williams in a goblin-infested castle, Grace Anderson hopes that the little mischievous pixie will lead her to the Goblin King who took them.
Relationships: Jareth/Grace Anderson





	When Darkness Overpowers

**Author's Note:**

> 2021-01-03: A little update, an anonymous reviewer on FanFiction.Net asked me a few questions about my story. I realize I didn't give proper context to Grace's role in the story -_-;
> 
> My character, Grace Anderson, babysits Toby and tutors Sarah Williams. Grace was there when Sarah wished Toby away, and she went to the labyrinth to support her. While the labyrinth recognizes both girls as two different runners, Grace claims she's only there to help Sarah. I said that I was once trying to make this a series. In that series, there were supposed to be two alternate endings in which either Sarah or Grace confronts Jareth to save Toby and whoever had been kidnapped.
> 
> Since one of the other questions was about the ending, I'm going to put it at the end to avoid spoilers!
> 
> 2021-01-01: Recently I've realized that it's one thing to plan a story that has darker themes or a bad ending, another thing to sit down and write about it. To be honest with you guys, I don't have a lot of experience with that.
> 
> This brings me to this short story I wrote last year, which I found hidden in my files. I decided to rewrite and expand on what I wrote before for one of my favourite movies, Labyrinth (1986). I wanted to make a long series for it, but I don't have the time to do that.
> 
> Lastly, I want to thank my IRL friend for being my beta. I finally asked my friend to beta-read my fanfics, not just my original work. I should’ve done it sooner XD

“You're one of his followers, aren’t you?”  
  
The bright golden light’s giggles rang softly in the twenty-year-old girl's ears, but not annoyingly. The magical creature filled the Goblin King’s throne room with laughter, and the scent of sensual jasmine, rich wood, and sweet honeydew permeated the air as she flew.  
  
The pixie led Grace to the stairs. The anxious brunette looked back at the way she came, where the others-Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Ludo-were waiting for her and Sarah. If only she could have guaranteed her new friends that this would be a fast rescue.  
  
She reached the top of the stairs and found herself in a long corridor. Dim orange light flickered off the cobblestone walls, casting deep shadows in the stone’s crevices. A drop of red wax fell at the brunette’s feet. She glanced up at the candle dangling from a rusted fixture on the ceiling just above her head before continuing deeper into the castle.  
  
Grace looked through the clear glass window of the castle and saw goblin soldiers march through the streets, using lanterns to light their way. The soldiers had to be searching for her and her companions, who had used the darkness to enter the city and slipped past the many soldiers guarding the gate.  
  
"Shit." The brunette turned away from the window.  
  
The silence was heavy as she hurried down the corridor. Grace thought she could hear a guard, but she couldn't be sure of that. Suddenly, when she heard some heavy footsteps, she quickly hid behind the wall. The hall was patrolled by a goblin soldier, gripping a large axe in his large hands.  
  
The Goblin soldier she saw appeared to have a higher intellect than the inept soldiers who they had slipped by, and he patrolled the hall confidently. Grace picked up an unlit candelabrum from a wooden table near her and hurled it at the goblin, causing his helmet to drop over his eyes.  
  
Grace turned around and raced past the goblin shouting in frustration as he backed up against the wall, trying to get the helmet off. She began to search for the pixie again and heard her giggle from around the corner. She followed her up another flight of stairs and found herself in another long, echoing corridor. It was illuminated not by candlelight, but by an eerie glow from the moon that shone through the windows. The brunette groaned. _How many halls did the castle have?_  
  
She kept searching, as a curious form slowly crawled toward her as she walked in the corridor.

Then dark, cold fingers wrapped around her ankles.  
  
Grace stumbled, falling on the cold stone floor. A few shadowy hands reached out to the fallen human girl, taking hold of her legs. Nails sank into her clothing, tore through her jeans, and left deep bruises on her skin. Grace, ignoring the pain in her legs, kicked the shadows in vain. The hands pulled her deeper into the darkness, her struggle becoming more desperate. The darkness began to swallow her lower body, starting with her legs.  
  
She screamed. No one heard her in the empty, quiet part of the castle.  
  
Except for the Goblin Soldier, who had caught up to her. He hurled his axe at the shadows, drawing a hiss out of them. It was not long before the shadows fled back into the darkness, for he had severed their hands, black liquid oozing from their wounds.  
  
Freed from the shadows, Grace had a crazy goblin to contend with. Since the goblin was not holding a sword, but he distributed force as he swung his huge, two-handed axe. He kept swinging like a madman, using every ounce of strength he had to impale the intruder.   
  
He kept swinging like a madman, using every ounce of power to impel the intruder. Grace kept moving backwards, dodging to avoid the attacker's blows. The big, beefy goblin was charging again, and he missed again, causing a section of the wall to chip off.  
  
"Stay still, human!" He growled, swinging his axe wildly.  
  
Grace took off with no other way to protect herself, and the heavily armed soldier chased after her.  
  
_Where was the pixie going?!_  
  
She checked some doors in this part of the castle, large rooms with books and strange furniture, but no pixie. She ran away from the guard by quickly entering another room. She looked around and saw a lit fireplace made of polished stone and a lot of shelves to store books.  
  
There was the pixie lying on the shelf, her hands behind her head.  
  
Quietly closing the door behind her, trying not to scare the elusive pixie, Grace quickly searched for a way to trap her. Grace took the cover off an unlit oil lamp, sneaking up on the distracted magical creature.  
  
Unfortunately the redheaded pixie quickly spotted her, jumped off the shelf, and darted across the room. Grace tried to catch the little winged maiden, and she cornered her, trapping her in the oil lamp cover.  
  
“Take me to the Goblin King!” she demanded.  
  
The pixie crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.  
  
“If I told you my friends’ lives were in danger, would you help me?”  
  
The pixie hesitated, biting her lip.  
  
"I need to find them," Grace told her. "You need to show me where they are, please.”  
  
She nodded.  
  
The pixie led her to another part of the castle. They stopped at a stone doorway. Grace thanked the pixie for helping her, then placed her hands on the heavy door and pushed it. It opened slowly, and bright light from inside stung her eyes, blinding her for a moment. She stumbled onto a smooth stone platform.  
  
The room was an endless maze of stairs , halls , and dark corners, like the labyrinth they had to go through to reach the King of Goblin. Just one way out, one way to freedom- which, of course, is through the Goblin King. Bravery was the only weapon she had. It got her very far, she needed to keep fighting and keep going. "Come on, Grace, it's going to be fine. You can do it. "  
  
Grace walked up the stairs. Then she heard a voice, and she knew who it was.  
  
"Where are Toby and Sarah?" Grace asked, sounding more like a demand than a question.  
  
Jareth just smirked. "How you turned my world, you precious thing."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
Then the Goblin King disappeared behind a wall.  
  
"You starve and near exhaust me." The Goblin King came out of the dark archway behind her, and he stepped past her. "Everything I've done, I've done for you."  
  
Jareth turned to Grace. "I move the stars for no one."  
  
She began to walk down another staircase. When Grace saw Jareth walking parallel to her, she frowned.  
  
"You've run so long, you've run so far."   
  
The brunette walked faster, but the Goblin King appeared upright at the far end of the platform. "Your eyes can be so cruel." Jareth showed her a crystal ball, bringing it to his eye level. "Just as I can be so cruel."  
  
"Stop these games, tell me where they are!" Grace shouted.  
  
Jareth laughed, throwing the crystal.  
  
Grace saw it land near Toby who was sitting on a platform.  
  
"Toby!" she cried.  
  
Somehow, she had to go to Toby. She began to make her way down a flight of stairs. No matter how many stairs she climbed up or down, or how many platforms she had to walk up and down, Toby got further and further away from her.  
  
"Though I do believe in you, yes, I do!"  
  
"Live without the sunlight," she heard the Goblin King say. She ignored him and climbed down more stairs to reach Toby. "Love without your heartbeat."  
  
"I… I can't live within you."  
  
Grace reached the bottom of one of the stairs and called Toby out.  
  
The child was very close to the ledge.  
  
Toby, unaware of the threat, stared at her with a crystal ball in his palm.  
  
"I'll do this to save them both." She closed her eyes and jumped.  
  


* * *

  
  
The brunette didn't know where she was until she opened her eyes. It may have been a different part of the castle. _It's quiet_. However, something had changed. Fragments of stairs and walls were suspended in the middle of the air as if they weighed nothing at all. She lied on the cold stone floor, gazing up at the darkness above her. She was positive this was the work of the Goblin King. Since there was no sign of either Toby or Sarah, they hadn't won yet. _But we will win_ , she thought determinedly. Grace stood up and looked around the room.  
  
And then she saw him again.  
  
Jareth came out of the dark archway, wearing a faded, threaded cloak. He was waiting for her.  
  
At first, she said nothing. The scowl on her lips told him that she was finished playing games, that she was both tired and furious. "Give them back to me," she said in a low but firm voice with the courage to face the challenge before her.  
  
A pause, then the Goblin King slowly walked over to her. "Grace, beware. I have been generous up until now, but I can be cruel."  
  
"Generous!" Grace's voice rose. "It's all because of you that we're separated. Tell me, what exactly have you done that's generous?"  
  
"Everything! Everything that you wanted I have done!" Jareth shouted at her. “You asked that the child remain unharmed, and I guarded him. You cowered before me, I was frightening."  
  
"I have reordered time," he told her. There appeared a thirteen-hour clock floating above the King's head. Grace noticed that the bronze hands were still close to the thirteenth hour. _There’s still time left._ "I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for you. I am exhausted from living up to your expectations of me. Isn't that generous?"  
  
Grace sighed out of frustration. The last thing she wanted to hear from the cruel man was more lies. "When you took Toby, I got Sarah to the Goblin City safely. I did everything I could to help her."Grace spoke with much more conviction now, her brown eyes filled with a determination that only a girl who had experienced so much in such short time could have. "You made Sarah doubt that saving her brother was possible, and she almost died! That's not being generous, that's cruel!" And with the resolve forged through hardship, it was clear that her mind and emotions were far from calm. Jareth looked amused, as if he knew something she didn't know.  
  
"I never asked you to do anything.”  
  
"Oh, you didn't?" The Goblin King said, a smirk on his lips.  
  
"Sarah wished Toby away, and came here thinking she could be a hero, but I had only one goal-making sure she got through your Labyrinth safely. I was paid to look after her brother, but her needs matter, too. "  
  
Grace remembered all the mistakes that Sarah had made from getting them lost at the beginning of the Labyrinth to failing to almost getting them killed several times. After that, Grace led the group. She had to do it-Sarah had been behaving like a kid during their long journey. Yeah, there were some moments when Sarah was behaving responsibly, but constantly whining about how _"life wasn't fair"_ and _"everything was hard"_ and _"everyone in this place was horrible to her"_ led Grace to snap at her for acting like a child. She remembered the rude things she had said to Sarah, her guilt washing over her.  
  
_"If you hadn't been so immature, irresponsible, and selfish, your little brother wouldn't be in trouble! You were only thinking of yourself! You need to stop acting like a child and grow up! "_  
  
That fight led them to split up.

Sarah said she would rescue Toby without Grace’s support. It wasn't that hard, she had said. She had Hoggle, the dwarf they had met at the beginning of the Labyrinth. Hoggle had assured Grace that _"he knew how to get past the guards"_ and _"had a plan to stop Jareth"_ and _"Sarah would be alright."_ Grace was doubtful about Hoggle's plan. She followed them deeper into the labyrinth and witnessed Hoggle betraying Sarah. She had run ahead and called out to Ludo and Sir Didymus, but they were too far ahead of them to hear her.  
  
When she got back, Sarah was gone. The Goblin King had taken her while Grace was stupidly searching for the others instead of staying with the younger girl who had been abandoned by Hoggle. After Hoggle's escape, she managed to get the others to Goblin City safely, determined to rescue Toby and Sarah.  
  
She wondered if it was the smartest decision to tell the others to stay behind. _They would be in a more dangerous position if they were here_ , she argued. It wasn't the time to second guess her decisions. She could not risk showing fear or hesitation in front of her enemy. Grace walked to him, her heart pounding in her chest.  
  
"Let Sarah go, and give us Toby back. Then send us home," she demanded.  
  
The blond-haired Goblin King looked into the brunette’s brown eyes and started to laugh. "Tell me, did you ever think of yourself as a fool?"  
  
"I'm not sure what you mean by that.”  
  
"I notice you always run away from your problems," he told her.  
  
Grace was quick to deny his statement, "I never ran from anything."  
  
"Such bold words. You said you solved the riddles for the boy's sister." Jareth took a few steps toward her, and just when she was about to rush forward to protect herself, he stopped abruptly. "You desire to solve others' problems, and you don't want others to feel pity for the vulnerable girl you are inside. Naturally, you took charge and became the hero that Sarah desperately wanted to be. Isn't that how it went?"  
  
The brunette was disgusted by the Goblin King's invasion of her personal space. It seemed he had no intention of taking her life, he must think that it's more fun to mess with her.  
  
"Sarah's mistake allowed you to leave your problems in your world, but your problems will always follow you. You are on the path of suffering, little girl, and you will not escape it."  
  
"You need to back the fuck off, Goblin King," Grace threatened. "If you hurt Sarah, I will put an end to you right here and now."  
  
"Ah, still thinking about her even now?" he asked her, moving his face closer to hers. "Why are you concerned about the child, Grace, when you should be concerned about yourself?"  
  
"I don't need to be. I’m not afraid of you." She was a little afraid, yes, but fear wasn't going to help her here. She was never going to give the Goblin King what he wanted-that's not how she was going to win. "I think you’re afraid."  
  
"Oh, really. You think you can stop me, little girl?" Jareth asked her. Grace looked away from the Goblin King. He touched her soft, fair skin and held up her chin. "That look in your eyes means you're scared."  
  
"You don't know me."  
  
"I noticed you desire more than your ordinary life."  
  
Grace pushed Jareth away. "Nothing you can offer me compares to what I have worked hard to earn." _I 'm not... running away._ "You're wrong about me." _Yeah, he's wrong. He doesn't know me._ "I'm not trying to leave my world for some fantasy land where all my problems are magically solved." _You say the lines, and you win. That’s how it worked in the story._ She started reciting the lines to the play _'The Labyrinth'_ that she helped Sarah learn for her English class. "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have come to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the people that you have stolen."  
  
Jareth retreated step by step, but Grace continued to walk forward.  
  
"For my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom-"  
  
"Stop!" Jareth raised the palm of his hand to her. "Wait! Look, Grace-look what I am offering you." He raised his left arm and made a large gesture with his hand. A glowing crystal ball appeared in it. "Your dreams."  
  
_My dreams? What the hell is he saying?_  
  
Grace took another step.   
  
"-and my kingdom as great."   
  
"I ask for so little," he said, holding the crystal. "Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want."  
  
_Ah, I get it now. He's desperate._  
  
She halted in her advance.  
  
He held up his arm, looking at her with pleading eyes. "Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."  
  
"You are a monster," Grace snapped, disgusted. "Why would anyone willingly choose to be with you in your Kingdom, even obey and fear you? I refuse to give myself to you." Having recalled the last line for Sarah, who had always forgotten them, she bravely stood against the Goblin King and recited it.  
  
"You have no power over me."  
  
The clock ticked off its last second, but the world didn't change. Grace's eyes darted over to the clock. She's no longer supposed to be here, they're all supposed to be back in their world. _Then why didn't it work..._  
  
The realization struck her like a lightning bolt, and she stumbled back, her hands gripping her head.  
  
"Those aren’t the words."  
  
She looked at Jareth and saw the victorious look on his face.  
  
"You are right, I've won." Jareth grinned. "You should have considered my offer. Unfortunately, it has to end this way. I hope you said goodbye to your friends."  
  
"No, no! Stop, wait!"  
  
The world began to crumble around her, and the darkness swallowed her, just as the shadows had wanted to do. She desperately cried out, hoping someone would hear her.  
  
They had lost, and it was her fault.

**Author's Note:**

> 2021-01-03: So where does Grace go after losing to Jareth?
> 
> The answer would have been revealed sequel. Yes, I planned the first book and a sequel. Grace finds herself back in her house, and only she remembers the journey through the labyrinth. If Sarah had confronted Jareth, she would have remembered it, and Grace wouldn't have remembered it. If Sarah or Grace had lost to Jareth, Sarah's parents neither anyone else wouldn't have remembered that Toby existed. Toby would've been stuck in Jareth's world until Sarah and Grace went back to save him. I don't remember how the girls remember Toby again. They would have found someway to get him back in the sequel.
> 
> I hope this clears things up!
> 
> 2021-01-01: And that was my attempt at a bad ending. This might not be my best work, haha. There’s a lot more I wanted to include in this story, but I didn’t think it’d fit.
> 
> I'd appreciate it if you guys would tell me what your think of the story, any mistakes you noticed, etc. I accept the criticism, honestly ^^
> 
> Ash


End file.
